r
...
91
Persuasive Language in Advertising and Televangelism
by Rosemarie Schmidt and Joseph F. Kess
University of Victoria
Al though
'persuasion'
has been gi ven a variety of defini tions over the
years, a composite of the most common meanings for the term would define
,....
'persuasion' as the process of inducing a voluntary change in someone' s atti­
tudes, beliefs or behaviour through the transmission of a message (Bettinghaus,
1968; Anderson,
1978).
The pre-eminent means for transmitting a persuasive
message is language, and in the modern world the mass media offer the largest
and most accessible audiences.
Television, in particular, provides a well-
developed example of the use of spoken language for persuasi ve ends.
is,
however,
There
a tendency to consider persuasion as primarily an instrument
of such obviously contrived ventures as commercial advertising or classical
oratory.
,...
Such a naive conceptualization overlooks the fact that persuasion
is also a normal part of other media presentations which also employ persuasive
means to achieve well-defined goals.
This paper is an attempt to refine
our understanding of the wider role of language in the persuasion process
by examining the broadcasts of television evangelists.
More specifically,
this study consists of an examination of the promotional segments of these
broadcasts to determine if the linguistic features already established for
television advertising
(see Lakoff, 1981,
and Geis,
1982) can also be
found in another form of language used to persuade, namely, televangelism.
Unfortunately,
r
there
is
no
generally
deals with the process of persuasion (see Himmelfarb
1981, for an overview).
r
currently
accepted
theory which
&Eagly, 1974, and Reardon,
The complexity of the persuasion process is attested
to in both the variety and number of process models put forth, none of which
has yet been able to account for even a major portion of the experimental
results of persuasion research.
specifically
r
r
to
determine
features might have an
whether
Some experimental work has been conducted
certain
linguistic
impact on persuasion.
devices
or stylistic
Unfortunately, this research
92
has generally suffered from a lack of comparability between operational defini­
tions of the variables studied,
be mixed
1981).
resulting in findings which have tended to
and difficult to interpret in relation to one another
(Reardon,
For example, while there is some evidence to indicate that metaphor
and simile
enhance the persuasive impact of a message
(Reinsch,
1977),
a
series of experiments conducted to test the effects of other stylistic features
failed to uncover any consistent effects of message style on persuasion (San­
dell, 1977).
style,
One consistent result of research on the effect of linguistic
however,
has been to show that the persuasive impact of a message
is affected by style insofar as the style of the message is perceived by
the recipient to be similar to his own (Giles and Powesland, 1975; Sandell,
1977).
Thus, it has been found, for example, that even though s!Jeakers wi
a standard or prestige accent are generally accorded more credibility and
their arguments are judged to be more sound, a recipient with a non-standard
accent
will
nevertheless be more persuaded by a message delivered in the
register which most closely resembles his own (Giles
&Powesland, 1975).
Looking specifically at the language of television advertising
to date,
three major studies have been conducted which focus specifically on the language
used in this advertising type.
The first of these (Leech, 1966) was published
almost two decades ago and used data taken from various types of advertising
found
in Great Britain.
identifying feature
for
The second (Lakoff, 1981) notes that an essential
of persuasive communication
novelty of expression,
in
this genre is its quest
and offers the following evidence from examples
of television advertising (see Lakoff, 1981, p.37) :
1. lexical novelty or neologism (e.g., devilicious
2. morphological or syntactic novelty (e.g., the
that eats like a
meal)
3. syntactic innovation
a) absence of subjects and verbal auxiliaries (e.g., Tastes good! And
nutritious too!)
b) odd uses of the definite article (e.g., Next time I'll buy the
Tylenol.
Diaper keeps moisture away from baby's skin)
r
93
r
4. semantic anomaly (e.g., Cleans better than another 1
oven cleaner
"..
!
5.
pragmatic novelty (e.g., conversation in mini-dramas: "Fill it to the
rim"II~H th
Brim"
"..
Lakoff accounts for this extensive use of linguistic novelty as follows.
First, anything neologistic, because it violates Grice's fourth conversational
maxim,
the
impact
of
~laxim
the
message
of the Cooperative
therefore,
role
draws attention to itself,
(see Grice,
1975).
Second,
by
thus increasing the
through
this
violation
Principle, neologism forces the hearer to interpret, and
participate in the discourse. According to
to
played
~lanner,
of
the
hearer,
in
turn,
enhances
Lakoff,
learning and
this
active
retention,
and
consequently also persuasion.
The third study (Geis, 1982) examined approximately 800 American television
commercials collected between 1978 and 1981 to determine not only what linguis­
tic
features
also
what
Among
might
the
Geis'
characterize
viewer might be
findings
was
the
this
form
of persuasive communication
expected to
recognition
understand from
of
two general
what
but
is
said.
approaches
taken
by advertisers in their language use.
The first was considered by Geis to
be a manipulative
that the
use
of language
in
impact of the message does
not depend on the recipient's conscious evaluation of its content.
technique
cited involves
the
frequent
repetition
of the
A common
product name
with
little or no supporting argumentation given as to the merits of the product
,...
itself.
with
"....
a
In the second type of persuasive language, the viewer is presented
message whose
impact derives from
his
evaluation of the
arguments
or claims which it contains.
Results of Geis' subsequent analyses of the commercials studied indicate
that a number
,...
television
of linguistic techniques are common to a large proportion of
advertising.
Included among
these
are
the following (see Geis,
1982, p. 139):
1. The use of imperative structures to make suggestions (e.g., Try Ex-Lax
pills, the overnight wonder)
94
2. The use of adjectivalization processes (e.g., buttery, creamy,
3. Rhetorical questions (e.g.,
hasn't someone invented a better tooth­
brush?
4. Elliptical comparatives (e.g., the new Chevette has more head room,
more seat and 1
more trunk room
5. The use of count nouns as mass nouns (e.g., a lot more Chevette for a
lot less
6. The terms introduci
Introduci
and announcing to attract viewer attention (e.g.,
the first roast beef sandwich bi
for
Burger King)
7. Product names which constitute mini-advertisements for the product (e.g.,
Soft & Dri deodorant)
Probably the major finding of this research, however, was that advertisers
favour indirect means of making claims for their products.
That is, rather
than making explicit assertions as to the value or effectiveness of their
product,
of
they invite the reader to infer this information through a process
conversational
or
conventional
implicature.
Conventional
implications
derive from the actual semantics of a sentence in terms of lexical meaning
and the semantic component inherent in structures much as questions and impera­
tives.
For
example,
the
question Who ate the cantal
conventionally
implies, among other things, that someone ate the cantaloupe.
conventional implicatures also include
In Geis' analysis,
logical entailment relations, since
they have in common the fact that if the entailed or implied proposition
of a sentence is cancelled, the result is a semantically anomalous sentence.
For example, consider the following sentences and the result of cancelling
the implied and entailed propositions, respectively.
Who ate the cantaloupe?
*1 know that no one ate the cantaloupe, but who ate the cantaloupe?
John read a book and
*John didn't read a book
went home.
but John read a book and
went home.
Geis has explained the use of conversational and conventional implicature
,...
,...
95
in advertising on two grounds. First, by adhering to a literal interpretation
of
,...
advertisers protect
indefensible
might be
claims.
prosecution for
themselves from
Second,
likely to be stimulated by
less
much
,...
is said,
what
the
what
viewers' cognitive defenses are
that which is not asserted directly.
However, since the claims made in this way are strongly implied through the
same
techniques
ordinary
the
is
of
discourse
intended
conversational
to
implicature
that
are
regularly
used
in
facilitate conversation, viewers will generally derive
interpretation,
but with
less counterargumentation.
Thus,
it
hypothesized that this approach to making claims could actually make the
message more persuasive in effect than direct claims stated explicitly.
Through a close examination of the actual claims made, Geis discovered
that the literal strength of these claims is often severely mitigated through
the
use
Miller
-
of modal verbs such as
and
Johnson-Laird
(1976)
~,
found
~~ght,
may,
~ould
that people often
certain modal elements in states of idle listening.
~!.!:.E..
and
do
However,
not attend
to
Since television viewing
is generally a passive state, many of the claims used in television advertising
thus
actually appear
to
the majority
of
viewers
to be much
stronger than
they actually are.
Generally,
then,
Geis concluded that people
untutored
in logic do not
tend to evaluate arguments on the basis of their logical validity.
Rather,
they apply the regular rules of conversational implicature in the interpretation
and
evaluation
both the
of arguments
relatively
presented
to
them.
This fact,
combined with
inattentive state which characterizes television viewing
and the real-time limitations on the messages presented in television advertis­
-
"..
ing,
serves to make viewers much less sensitive to the detection of faulty
argumentation or weak claims.
Our
devices
research
attempted
to
determine
whether
said to characterize effective persuasion
could also be
found
in
another type
the
in
kinds
of
linguistic
television advertising
of language use intended to persuade.
The data used for purposes of comparison were taken from the broadcasts of
television
evangelists,
'electronic church' •
also known
in
the
popular media literature as
the
I
\'­
96
Televangelism
differs
from
the
kinds
of
religious
programming produced
by mainline churches such as the Lutheran, Catholic or Anglican denominations
in several important ways.
While televangelists share with mainline churches
the fact that it is a stated purpose of all religious broadcasting to recruit
converts, they differ in the degree to which this goal is pursued.
For televan­
gelists the use of television is a matter of 'fulfilling the great commission'
of ensuring that every person on earth has the opportunity to hear the gospel
(Hadden & Swann,
1981, p.90).
In keeping with their view of God as a very
act i ve par tic i pan tin w0 rId eve nt s, tel evis ion an d the
0
the r mas s me di a are see n
as God's provision of the means by which to carry out His will.
Televangelists
must also pay for their broadcast time, while television stations have tradi­
t i onal! y donated the time used by the main line cenominations. Furthermore, because
the
of
televangelists'
churches,
ministries are not supported by an established network
these
ministries
depend
upon
the
financial
audiences for their very existence (Hadden & Swann, 1981).
support
of
their
Hence, televange­
lists must secure not only regular viewers but also sufficient contributions
from
them
however,
to
are
carry
not
the
always
costs
of
solicited
their
television
directly.
broadcasts.
Instead,
Donations,
the ultimate goal of
securing financial contributions is very often pursued by first simply getting
the viewer to respond to the program.
prayer
for
be
for
requests
the
viewer
placed on
and
telephone
to respond,
Various inducements such as gift offers,
counselling
and if he responds,
a computerized mailing
contributions are sent.
are
list
commonly
offered
as
reasons
his name will automatically
through
which
subsequent
appeals
It is through these computerized mailing lists
that a great deal of the actual fund-raising for televangelists is done (Hadden
& Swann, 1981).
The programs themselves are generally fast-paced and highly entertaining.
They
are
include
characteristically
songs,
a sermon.
divided
into
a variety of speakers,
a series of short
segments
which
interviews, film clips, and typically
The five programs used for this study had in common the use of
several of these segments specifically for purposes of promoting the ministry,
the
program i tsel f,
segments
that
or the items or services offered.
viewers
were
also
asked
either to write
It was during these
0
r to telephone the
-
97
ministry
in
order to receive the aforementioned goods and services or to
make a contribution to the ministry.
Thus, in addition to the religious
issue of attempting to gain converts, the programs of televangelists also
contain persuasive attempts of a more secular nature.
seek to
That is, televangelists
persuade their audience to become regular or frequent viewers of
the program and/or to respond to the program.
Furthermore, al though every
segment of the broadcast could be considered to contribute to an overall
persuasive effect wi thin the programs used for this study, certain segments
were identifiably persuasive in intent since they were devoted specifically
to the promotion of the program, the ministry or the various items or services
offered.
The
data for this study were taken from the promotional sections of
fi ve of the mos t pop ular tel evangel i sti c programs.
determined
through
audience statistics
Populari ty ratings were
for 1980 provided by Arbitron (see
Hadden & Swann, 1981), and the five programs selected on this basis were,
in rank order, Oral Roberts and You, You Are Loved (evangelist, Rex Humbard),
The
Hour
of Power
(evangelist,
Robert Schuller), Jimmy Swaggart, and
Old Time Gospel Hour (evangelist, Jerry Falwell).
~
The particular broadcasts
used for this study were taped on one of two consecutive Sundays, January
17 and 24, 1982.
The
promotional segments
isolated for analysis were defined as those
parts of the program which contained appeals for viewer response or promotion
of the ministry or the program i tsel f.
The data taken from these segments
were restricted to include only those speech samples that were directed specifi­
-
cally toward the viewing audience.
That is, conversations and interviews
were not included in the analysis since these could not be assumed with confi­
dence to be intended to persuade.
only the
audio
portions of
The data were further restricted to include
the programs studied, thereby eliminating the
non-verbal component of communication from analysis.
The data from each of the programs were searched for occurrences of the
linguistic features discussed by Lakoff and Geis as characteristic of persuasive
98
language in television advertising, as well as for other features described
in the introductory pages of t his paper.
Any given feature had to occur
in at least two of the programs to be considered worthy of note.
Speci fic
examples found in the data were then compared with those of television adver- :
ti sing
to
determ ine the degree of s i mil ari ty or the types of di fferences
that occurred within the general categories set up either by lakoff or Geis.
As mentioned earlier, an essential identifying feature in lakoff's analysis
of
persuasive television advertising was the extensive use of novel
and expressions.
frequently
terms
While the use of such terms and expressions did not occur
in the data,
every broadcast surveyed did contain at least one
example of a novel use of language.
Two instances of lexical novelty were found in the data.
In both cases
existent lexical items were used to construct terms for concepts unique to
the ministry in which they were used.
One of these, possibility thinking,
was coined by Robert Schuller to refer to the posi tive outlook espoused by
his ministry as a way of life to be followed in conjunction with the teachings
of Christi ani ty.
The meaning of the term is relati vely easy to deri ve from
the lexical meanings of the items wi thin the compound and the context of
the program.
This may be contrasted with the term seed faith, used by Oral
Roberts to refer, essential 1y, to don ati on s to his mini stry (Hadden & Swann,
1981).
of
Here the referent of the term is not transparent, given the meanings
the
fai th
1exi cal items wh ich compri se it.
during
discussed
references to seed
the course of the program serve to disambiguate its meaning
only in very oblique ways.
is
Furthermore,
Nevertheless, gi ven the fact that seed fai th
exclusively as a means by which someone can obtain miracles
from God, it would appear from the data that the use of this term actually
consti tutes an attempt to re-frame the concept of donation as something which
benefits
the
giver, while obscuring any potential gains to be derived by
the recipient of the donation.
Several
instances
of
morphological or syntactic novelty also occurred
in the speech of televangelists.
Here existent terms were ei ther used as
r
I
99
belonging to a different part of speech class or they were set out in unusual
syntactic environments.
SOllie examples of morphological or syntactic novelty
found include the following (each of the numbered quotations in the examples
is taken frolll the broadcast of the evangelist whose name follows it):
1. God wants to bless and prosper you. (Oral Roberts)
2. We're
going to believe God for those letters that have cOllie to us
saying Rex, at prayer time, pray for me. (Rex Humbard)
In examples (1) and (2) above, the novel use of prosper and believe
results in
a functional
condensation,
since the more conventional way of
saying (1) would be God wants to bless (you) and lIIake you prosper.
Similarly,
the actual meaning of (2) might be expressed grammatically in a sentence
such as We're going to believe that God will answer the requests contained
in those letters that have come to us,.
In this case, the condensation also
involves a change in the semantic component, since the most likely interpreta­
tion of this sentence is not completely expressed in the actual terms used.
Syntactic innovation in the form of an absence of subjects and verbal
auxiliaries was also found in the speech of televangelists.
3.
Well, a real good song - "Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters." (Oral
Roberts)
4.
Talks about a better place, a better land.
Entitled "Heaven For
Me." (Jimmy Swaggart)
5.
,...
Thousands of people together here for one of America's most positive
and inspirational programs.
(Robert Schuller)
The environments in which these instances of syntactic innovation occurred
are similar in that they were all introductions.
In (3) the name of a song
was introduced immediately after it had been sung, while (4) and (5) preceded
the items introduced, a song and the program, respectively.
Aside from the metaphorical use of language, two of the programs surveyed
also contained instances of semantic anomaly.
100
6.
As president of my corporation I am faced wi th many problems.
of them are positive, some are negative.
7. To provoke a soul-winning conversation.
Some
(Robert Schuller)
(Jerry Falwell)
Both these examples contain violations of the semantic selectional restrictions
on nouns.
In
(6) the attributive adjective positive is used to describe
problems, while in (7) the verb provoke is used with the direct object
sation.
In both cases it is the conventional meaning of the noun which contri­
butes to the anomaly.
Problems are conventionally considered to be undesirable
and therefore negative.
problems
itself,
~­
involves
an
Making a distinction between positive and negative
elimination
of
the negative connotation on the noun
making it affectively neutral.
Similarly, the conventional meaning
of conversation is that it is a cooperative exchange between speakers, while
the verb provoke implies a level of confrontation or aggression on the part
of the agent.
The use of the modifier soul-winning in this case may soften
the impact of the anomaly by suggesting that there is a class of conversation
which can or must be provoked.
Nevertheless,
the use of conversation in
t his con t ext rem ains an"o malo us, un1esson ere de fin esit s mea ni ng to inc1ude
such talk exchanges as arguments or disputes.
Generally,
like
television
then,
it
would
advertisers,
in their persuasive speech.
to
believe
God
for
appear
utilize
from
various
the
data
types
of
that televangelists,
linguistic
novelty
In some of the cases found, (e.g., seed faith,
••• letters
semantic anomaly),
the linguistic novelty
also contributed to a change in the conventional or connotative meaning of
the terms used or the items referred to in this way.
The only types of novelty
identified by Lakoff which were not found in the data were odd uses of the
definite
article
and pragmatic anomaly,
a type of novelty found to occur
in the somewhat sti 1ted conversation of mini-dramas in advertising.
the data used did not contain interviews or conversations,
pragmatic anomaly is to be expected.
Since
the absence of
The fact that the definite article
was not used in odd ways by t elevange 1i sts points to a difference between
the two types of persuasion.
be
less
Since the speech of televangelists tends to
scripted and therefore more natural than that of advertising,
it
is not unexpected that this type of syntactic innovation is a feature which
characterizes advertising language specifically.
-
I
101
Television
advertising
sees
the
frequent
repetition
of
product names
as one common manipulative use of language which seems to function mostly
in getting the hearer to remember the name (see Geis, 1982).
For example,
the morpheme yum is mentioned 24 times in one 30-second commercial for the
product Bubble Yum.
The fact that the promotional segments in the programs
used in this study varied in length from 4.7 (Oral Roberts) to 17.4 (Jerry
Falwell) minutes,
however,
made it virtually impossible that any name could
be repeated at an average rate of 48 times per minute throughout these segments
and still maintain some semblance of normal language use.
Bearing in mind
the duration of the segments contained in the current data and the conversa­
tional nature of the language used, a "high rate of repeti tion' was operation­
ally defined as any name which was mentioned an average of at least twice
per minute,
during the course of these segments.
Results of a subsequent
search of the data are set out in Table 1 below.
TABLE 1
Frequency and Rate per Minute of Highly Repeated Names by Evangelist
Evangelist
Name
Frequency
Rate
Oral Roberts
Oral
15
3.2
Rex Humbard
Rex
20
2.1
God
19
2.0
Robert Schuller
Schuller
25
3.1
Jimmy Swaggart
Swaggart
15
2.5
Jerry Falwell
Faith Partners
34
2.1
In three of the programs studied, only one name was repeated more than twice
per minute, and that was the name of the evangelist.
In Rex Humbard's program
the evangel ist' s name was still the most fre quentl y men tioned, but God was
also mentioned an average of twice per minute.
",...
One exception to the trend
of mentioning the evangelist's name more frequently than any other was found
in Jerry Falwell's Old Time Gospel Hour.
contributors
to the ministry,
the Faith
Here it was the name of the regular
Partners, which was repeated most
frequently, at a rate of 2.1 times per minute.
In many cases, the name was
not mentioned in isolation, but rather as a part of a larger name for a product,
102
group or institution belonging to the ministry.
Unlike
most
television
advertising,
televangelists'
the promotion of more than a single identi fiable
programs
'product'.
involve
Included among
these are the program itself, the group comprised of regular financial contribu­
tors, and the various items or services offered during the program.
ination of the names gi ven to these various
the names used in television advertising,
information which could function
An examin­
'products' showed that, as wi th
many of them do, indeed, convey
in helping to promote them.
Perhaps the
most interesting of these are the names given to the groups comprising regular
financial contributors to the ministry.
8.
The Faith Partners (Jerry Falwell)
9.
The World Outreach Partners (Jimmy Swaggart)
10.
The Prayer Key Family (Rex Humbard)
11.
The Possibility Thinkers' Club (Robert Schuller)
All of these names have been constructed from noun compounds which function
as prenominal 1II0di fiers + a head noun.
By referring to the contexts of the
programs, the particular choice of lexical items used as modifiers in describing
the group can be seen as a type of assert i on as to its nature or val ue.
Secondly, all of these head nouns have in common the semantic feature < +belong­
ing >.
family,
Two of the names describe the group as partners, one is called a
while the other is a club.
That is, these lexical items could be
said to contribute to the impression that the regular contributors to a minis­
try are all part of a close or even exclusive group.
The impression of belong­
ing is supported by an assertion made by Jerry Falwell that one of the itellls
sent to the Faith Partners in return for their monthly contribution would
make them 'a part of the inner circle'.
Similarly, the term club tends to
connote not only belonging but also exclusive access to those who are members.
In the case of Robert Schuller's Possibility Thinker's Club, the implication
of
exclusivity
is reinforced by the fact that members receive 1.0. cards
identi fying them as such, even though membership in th is club is an automatic
result of simply pledging one's monthly support.
-
103
Another
of
characteristic
feature
of
television
advertising
claims whose literal strength has been mitigated through
of modal verbs such as may, can and help.
is
the
use
the insertion
In the case of televangelists'
speech, however, it was found that although claims were also used extensively,
this type of mitigation was not.
In fact, only two instances of mitigation
were found, neither of which used modal verbs.
-
12.
(Through the people just mentioned) probably we're getting in more
Bibles than anyone else (to China). (Jimmy Swaggart)
13.
When you consider the fact that we're on nearly 400 television sta­
tions,
500
radio
stations,
reaching literally the potential every
household in North America, and throughout Australia, the Phillipines,
the i sl ands of the sea - many parts of the world.
In
-
(12)
(Jerry Falwe 11)
the claim is mitigated through the use of the adverb probably
while (13) contains two types of mitigation.
The adjective nearly definitely
applies to the phrase which immediately follows it, but its scope may also
include the number of radio stations mentioned.
In either case the literal
strength of the claim is severly reduced, since it is the speaker's judgment
that the actual number is close to 400; it could concei vably vary between
250 and 399 and still make the claim literally true.
The second type of
mi tigation is found in the awkward construction Ii terally the potential every
household where the insertion of the modifying phrase the potential significant­
ly weakens what would otherwise be a very strong claim indeed.
Many of the claims made by the televangelists contained no attempt to
mitigate their literal strength.
14.
(Andre Crouch, the guest singer is) Loved by thousands, yes by mil­
lions.
-
(Oral Roberts)
Some of the claims made by televangelists could be classed by subject into
types.
One such type contained an assertion as to the personal participation
of God in furthering the work of the ministry.
104
15.
God has called Rex and given him a vision of a world-wide outreach
to searching and starving souls.
16.
(Rex Humbard)
God had made it possi bIe for us th rough a network of effort that
I can't describe to you (to get Bibles into China).
(Jimmy Swaggart)
Another type of claim men ti one d th e number of peop Ie actua11 y conve rted
or 'reached' by the ministry in its outreach efforts.
11.
Thousands get saved on a regular basis.
Watching, listening to
our television, radio programs. (Jerry Falwell)
18. As Rex led them in prayer, literally hundreds of thousands acknowledged
Jesus Christ in their hearts and minds. (Rex HUlbard)
One cOlmon feature of television advertising is the prevalence of speech
forms which convey information
of
conventional
or
that must be interpreted through processes
conversational
implicature.
Conventional
implicature
derives from the' conventional meaning of the words in an utterance and the
semantic component
entailed in its structure.
Conversational implicature,
on the other hand, also utilizes such information as is provided by the context,
shared background knowledge and beliefs, as well as the Cooperative Principle
and conversational maxims set out by Grice (1915).
In the language of televan­
gelists, many instances of claims and assertions were found which required
-
some measure of conventional or conversational inference in their interpreta­
tion.
19.
Father, help each one here and millions watching by television to
prepare to meet God. (Jerry Falwell)
20. Our way of saying thanks for helping to proclaim God's word to millions
of needy people.
(Jerry Falwell)
Sentence (19) conventionally implies the proposition millions are watching
by television.
ture,
This can be demonstated by the test for conventional ilplica­
cancellation,
not watching
by television.
which
results
in the anomalous sentence *Millions are
by television, but help each one here and millions watching
Similarly, (20) conventionally illplies that we proclaim God's
-
r
t
105
word to millions of needy people.
al impl ication
This sentence also contains the conversation­
by the Maxim of Relation -- that the needy people referred
to are in need of God's word, not food or money or shelter.
a feature
also found
and conversational
This demonstrates
in television advertising, namely, that conventional
implicature
often occur together in the same utterance
or string of utterances which form an argument.
This interaction of the
two types of implicature is further exemplified in the following set of utter­
ances from Oral Roberts' program.
21.
What we've built here in the City of Faith is a medical centre with
the most advanced design and technology of any medical centre in
the world.
But more important, we I ve brought together people from
allover the country who believe in medicine AND believe in prayer.
And THAT is really what makes the difference.
The final
sentence in this set conventionally implies that there is
a difference between the City of Faith and other medical centres in the world,
and further,
that this difference can be attributed to something already
referred to.
By referring to the linguisitc context of the preceding utterance
(including the stress on and and the Maxim of Relation), it can be shown
that this
sentence further implies through conversational implicature that
the di fference referred to can be attributed to the additional feature of
belief in prayer.
For many people, this might conclude the inferences that
they would draw from these utterances.
Roberts'
ministry,
however,
there
For those who are familiar with Oral
is another proposition implied in these
utterances which depends on shared background knowledge and beliefs.
The
necessary background information is the fact that Oral Roberts himself is
a known faith healer.
,....
He not only began his television ministry as a faith
healer, but continues to conduct healing services in his untelevised meetings
throughout the country (Hadden & Swann, 19a1).
Ali stener who is aware of
these f ac ts and who sh ares Oral Roberts I be 1i ef in f ai th heal ing mi ght also
,....
infe r that the way in wh ich a be 1i ef in prayer 'makes the difference' in
the City of Faith
is through invoking God1s help in healing, or more succinct­
ly, through fai th healing.
found
in
Most of the cases of conversational implicature
the speech of televangelists are similar to those of television
advertising in that they require that inferences be drawn on the Maxim of
106
Relation.
Another indirect speech form employed by television advertisers favours
vague
language
subject
to
assertions
in
the
empirical
or
statement
of propositions which might otherwise be
verification.
Television
advertising
claims about thei r product wh i ch sound good,
can
thus make
but wh ich are
Ii terally so weak as to have virtually no empirical consequences.
This was
also found to apply to the speech of televangelists where the use of vague
speech forms often resul ts in sentences which gi ve the hearer lati tud~ in
interpretation of referents used.
Certainly it would be difficult to dispute
any of the claims or assertions listed below.
22.
When Oral Roberts founded a university in 1968 he was looking for
a special kind of student.
A person who wanted to make a difference.
Since that time, Oral Roberts University students HAVE made a differ­
ence.
O.R.U. competes with the best.
sions
Write the Director of Admis­
And find out just how special YOUR life can be.
(Oral
Roberts)
23.
Something, good is going to happen to you. (Oral Roberts)
24.
This devotional guide can be the key to your new year.
Last year's
guide was a life support to possibility thinkers around the world.
The new guide will be equally helpful.
(Robert Schuller)
Another linguistic feature found to be common in television advertising
was the process of constructing adjecti ves from other parts of speech.
language
of
The
televangelists was found to be similar to that of television
advertising as these processes were also used extensively, though the kinds
of adj ecti ves formed di ffered considerabl y.
Fi rst, un 1ike te lev i sion adverti­
sers, televangelists did not generally employ -y suffixation, except in such
common
terms ,as daily,
weekl.y,
and
~on~hly.
Second,
al though
nouns were
freql:'ently used as ,adjecti ves in prenollinal posi tion, the compounds constructed
this way did not generally function as similes.
Rather, there was a larked
tendency in all fi ve programs to use various types of adj ecti ve formation
in constructing noun phrases which consisted of a long series of modifiers
-
107
followed by a head noun.
-
25.
this brand new for 1982 daily devotional guide (Robert Schuller)
26.
my fiftieth anniversary that live been in Godls work golden medallion
(Rex Humbard)
27. soul-stirring Bible preaching (Jimmy Swaggart)
28. an old-fashioned spirit-filled revival service (Jimmy Swaggart)
29. the
television radio ministry Old Time Gospel Hour (Jerry Falwell)
From these examples it can be seen that various parts of speech were
used as prenominal modifiers,
including a phrase in
and a clause in
(25)
(26) •
Adj ecti val i zat ion processe sin te lev i s i on adverti sing have been di scussed
(see Geis, 1982) as a means by which a literally subjective description gives
the appearance of being stronger than it actually is.
is supported by other findings
This interpretaion
(Fowler & Kress, 1979. Bolinger, 1980) that
adjectives placed in prenominal position give the appearance of classification
to descriptions whi ch may in fact be the speak er IS eval uation.
prenominal
modification
to
make
The use of
subjective attributions seems to apply to
some but not all of the cases above.
For example,
one might question the
attribution of soul-stirring to the preaching referred to in (27).
However,
as can be seen in (29), the use of such prenominal modification and adjecti­
valization
processes
does
not
necessarily
contain
a
subjective component.
There are two things which all of these instances of adjectivalization have
in common.
,...
First, the noun phrases constructed in this way all form a complex
of descriptive assertions about the noun.
Second, the fact that these descrip­
tive terms all precede the noun means that a hearer must process and retain
a series of attributes before he is informed of their referent.
Another feature of television advertising is the use of imperative struc­
"...
tures to carry the force of suggestions.
Al though advertisers do not have
the necessary authority over their audience to actually command them, they
still
utilize the sentence structure of commands to direct their audience
108
to the desired course of action.
tel evange 1i sts,
This was also found to be the case for
for in every prog ram studi ed, di rec t command structures were
used extensively.
Consider the following examples.
So call the toll-free number now, and say "I'll give a gift of fifty
30.
dollars or ten dollars a month for fi ve months", let me send you
this gold medallion.
31. So
j
0
(Rex Humbard)
i nth a t 'Faith Partner team.
(Jerry Falwell)
In the literature of speech act analysis, all speech acts which essentially
consti tute an attempt by the speaker to get the hearer to do something are
called directives (Searle, 1975a).
Some directives, such as cO.lands, require
that the speaker have authority over the hearer for their successful performance
of that act.
If the condi tion of relevant authori ty does not hold, however,
then any direct i ve a speaker mi gh t
only
be
interpreted
as
carrying
iss ue,
regardl ess of surface form, can
a force weaker than that of commanding.
Since a system of consti tutive rules for distinguishing between such weaker
directives as requests,
developed,
however,
suggestions,
pleas and entreaties has not yet been
the ascription of actual force remains largely a latter
of interpretation.
Both
associated
televangelists
and television advertisers use structures normally
-
with direct commands to issue directives whose force is weaker
than th at of commandi ng.
I n the case of te levange lis ts, however, the force
of a directive was also found to be conveyed through a variety of other surface
structures.
It was possible to identify a total of nine distinct surface
structure types used by televangelists to direct their audience to sOle course
of action.
All of these had in common the fact that they predicated a future
act of the audience, but they di ffered considerably in the actual structures
used.
Six of the types isolated were, in fact, indirect directives.
Accordi ng to Sear Ie (1975b), the successful communication of the intended
force
of
an indirect directive involves an understanding of not only the
fel i city condi ti on s menti oned above,
but al so the context of the utterance
-
109
and the basic principles of conversation. The types of indirect directive
found in the data all shared the fact that they predicated a future act of
the audience, but they di ffered in the degree to which contextual factors
were required for their interpretation.
types of directives found
in
The following is a listing of the
the speech of televangelists, with examples
from the programs surveyed.
DIRECTIVES SET IN THE FORM OF COMMANDS
I. Simple command structures
32.
Tell them that you'd like to pledge your support each month.
(Robert
Schuller)
II. Command structures whose predicate contains a statement which the audience
is directed to repeat.
33.
Call ••• and say "Jerry, I want to be a Faith Partner.
pray
regular
(sic) for this ministry.
I want to
I want to give monthly".
(Jerry Falwell)
III. Command structures embedded in a conditional structure.
34.
If you haven't got the first and second week incoming, do it quickly
and then get the third week in.
(Oral Roberts)
INDIRECT DIRECTIVES
IV. Indirect directives embedded in a conditional structure.
35.
If you ••• are thinking about Liberty, then you need to write to
Liberty Baptist College. (Jerry Falwell)
V. Directives set in the form of a yes/no question.
36. Will you pay? (Jimmy Swaggart)
VI. Directives set in the form of "Why not" questions.
37. Why not join me and be a member of Dr. Schuller's Possibility Thinkers'
Club? (Robert Schuller)
VI I.
Embedded di recti ves set in th e su rface form of an asse rti on about th e
speaker.
38.
We're asking our Faith Partners everywhere ••• to double your (sic)
monthly committment.
VIII.
39.
(Jerry Falwell)
Embedded directives, as above, directed at God.
And then we're asking God to give us new Faith Partners.
(Jerry
110
Falwell)
IX.
Directives whose stated source is God or the Bible.
40.
God has called us to complete this task together.
(Rex Humbard)
In general, results of the research here reported lend support to most
of the categories set out by Lakoff and Geis as characteristic of the persua­
sive use of language with reference to television advertising.
In particular,
the use of indirect speech forms and vague language were found to occur not
only in the presentation of claims and arguments, but also in other kinds
of speech acts,
these me ssages
well as
Geis'
and
such as assurances and predictions (e.g.,
really help.
SOllie th i ng good
in th e i ssui ng of di recti ves.
And believe me,
is goi ng to happen to you), as
The re was also strong support for
finding that product names often have more than a referring function
can
themselves
carry
information
that
might
aid
in
their promotion.
With reference to the use of linguistic novelty, however, the findings
were less unequivocal.
to
Lakoff considered the use of novel terms and expressions
be an essential identifying feature of persuasive discourse.
Although
sOlie examples of most types of linguistic novelty isolated by Lakoff were
also found in the televangelist data, the fact that this type of device was
not used as extensively in these messages as some of the other categories
discussed
only
would
suggest
that
these
findings should be considered to lend
-
weak support to Lakoff's interpretation of the importance of novelty
to persuasive discourse.
Several categories isolated by Geis or Lakoff,
in the data used for th is study.
however, did not occur
These were as fo llow s:
ducing or announcing used to attract viewer attention; 2.
nouns as lass nouns; 3.
5.
of
rhetorical questions; 4.
odd uses of the definite article; 6.
these
1.
the terms i ntro­
the use of count
elliptical comparatives;
pragmatic anomaly.
The absence
features from the data indicates that these particular types of
language use do not necessarily characterize language intended to persuade
and, fu rthermore, may in fact be artifacts of one parti cu lar sty Ie of persua­
sive language use, that of television advertising.
-
111
-
The findings of this research seem to confirm the importance of implicit
information in the language used to persuade, particularly in
where recipients of the message
fact
,....
are predominantly passive.
a context
However, the
that only persuasive messages from one context were examined leaves
open several questions which might be addressed in future research.
For
example, are recipients of a message actually more likely to accept presupposed
or implied information without counterargumentation than that which is explicit­
ly stated?
Further, how do the present findings apply to conversational
persuasion?
That is, would the information conveyed using the linguistic
devices found to be common among these two types of televised persuasive
messages be less likely to be questioned or counterargued against in a setting
in which the recipient can participate more overtly?
Finally, how does the
use of language for persuasion compare with other types of language use,
such as , for example, exposi tory di scourse in wh i ch th e intention is less
to persuade and more to inform?
-
,....
.....
.....
-
It is through answers to questions such
as these that we may come to understand more fully the impact that language
can have in the persuasion process and, by implication, the structure and
function of the persuasive mode of communicative interaction.
112
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